Payment of pensions to former governors and their deputies may soon be a thing of the past in Abia State.
Grassroots Parrot gathered that the State House of Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill to hurt the payment.
Mr Emmanuel Emeruwa, the Assembly Speaker, announced the passage of the bill after its first, second reading, consideration at the committee of the whole and its third reading during the plenary.
Emeruwa, while congratulating members, said the bill would reduce the state’s governance expenses and redirect resources toward development.
According to him, the bill once assented to by the governor immediately, would be referred to as “Abia State Governors and Deputy Governor’s (Repeal) Law 2024.”
The bill titled “Law to Revoke The Abia State Governors and Deputy Governors Pensions Law No 4 of 2001” was sponsored by Mr Uchanna Okoro, the House Majority Leader.
The life pension packages of former state governors has been a controversial issue since 2007 when the first set of Fourth Republic governors ended their eight-year tenures
Some of the ex-governors are even collecting both pensions and salaries as ministers in the cabinet of the current All Progressive Complex APC-led administration.